Today is Korean American Day!

January 13 has been designed “Korean American Day.” On this day in 1903, a group of 102 courageous Korean men, women, and children arrived in Honolulu from Japan aboard the steamship RMS Gaelic to work in the Hawaiian sugar cane fields. In the next few years, they would be followed by more than 1,000 Koreans entering the mainland from Hawaii through San Francisco.

This date is traditionally regarded as marking the first Korean immigration to the United States and celebrated as Korean American Day — although several individual Koreans had immigrated to the United States earlier, including Philip Jaisohn (Seo Jae-pil), a journalist and medical doctor and a noted champion for Korea’s independence, who in 1890 became the first Korean to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

From these humble beginnings, a large and vibrant Korean American community has grown, now numbering nearly 2 million people of Korean descent in the United States, including nearly half a million people in California.

Irvine is proud to celebrate our thriving Korean American community each year in our annual Irvine Korean Cultural Festival, designed to share Korean culture with the entire community by showcasing its customs, heritage, cuisine, and arts.

I am proud to live and serve in a city that celebrates and treasures our Korean American community and I join my many Korean American friends and neighbors in celebrating Korean American contributions to our shared American heritage and way of life.

Irvine Community Services Commissioner Melissa Fox speaks to City Council on behalf of OC veterans, urging the City Council to set aside land in the Great Park as a final resting place for Orange County veterans